Vegan goodies wanted for Christmas hamper.

jeanmd

I'm wanting to make up a Vegan Christmas hamper for my daughter. She's a student and was vegetarian until nine months ago when she decided to go vegan and I must say she looks wonderfully well on it and is managing to eat very well on a low budget. She doesn't buy many luxury items as most are expensive and she doesn't get time to shop around between her course and working to support herself.
So if anyone knows of sweet things I can buy on the high street could you post what and where. Thanks :A

Searching on mse I've so far found Lidl's mince pies and some of their chocolate's vegan - will check them out today.

So the hamper will include:
Mince pies
Chocolate

cherrypies

Theres a good vegan choccy list somewhere on the net, I'll have a look for it now, that lists lots of vegan goodies you can buy in UK stores. Other than sweet treats I would recommend visiting a health food store and buying:

Nut and seed selections.
Bombay mix
Jars of nut butter (peanut, cashew, almond)
Fresh fruit that keeps a while, satsumas, other citrus
Dried fruit, dates, apricots etc
Coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut flour.
Maybe a gift voucher so she can choose some products for herself, i think Holland and Barrett do them.

Heres the choccy list:

Moo Free Chocolates: lovely praline 'milky' chocolates and solid 'milky' chocolate hearts.
Celtic chocolates: particularly the caramel 'milk' chocolates. Often in the free from section at the supermarket or in Holland and Barrett.
Go Max Go: the chocolate bars everyone's talking about at the moment - Jokerz, Twilight, Buccaneer, and Mahalo bars, which are very similar to the sort of nougat/caramel-type chocolate bars that a lot of vegans probably miss, but I'll probably get sued if I compare them to any particular brand names. Vegan Store and Ethical Wares sell them in the UK.
Plamil - chocolate bars, all products vegan, nut-free and gluten-free
Organica - chocolate bars, some products vegan (vegan ones are labelled)
Booja Booja - luxury chocolates, all products vegan and wheat-free
Montezuma's - all sorts of handmade, fairly traded chocolates, not all vegan but products are clearly labelled on the website
Dairy Free 'milky' chocolate bars, look for them in the free from section in supermarkets and in wholefoods stores. The Sainsbury's own brand 'free-from' soya chocolate appears to be the same product in different packaging. The tangerine one is the closest vegan equivalent I've found to Chocolate Orange. The company that makes these also do 'milk' chocolate buttons and chocolate spread. A nice change from dark chocolate!
Divine 70% dark chocolate and mint 70% dark chocolate is labelled as suitable for vegans and is available in some supermarkets
Lyme Regis Foods chocolate-covered marzipan bars

jeanmd

Thanks cherrypies,
She's only just started eating peanut butter and nuts etc. she never liked them before, but has made a big effort to eat them since becoming vegan. I will include some of these, but she does buy these already so they're not really luxury's for her.
I bought her some Moo Moo chocolate bars for her birthday, but I must admit that I thought it expensive at £2.75 for a smallish bar from our local health food store.
I'm hoping to find things in Aldi, Asda etc. at normal prices.

rachbc

cashew butter and almond butters a lovely - much much nicer than pnb and relatively expensive so a nice treaty item.

Bottled fruits in booze are a lovely treat.

Lots of normal hamper items are vegan like teabags - if she's a healthy type some nice herbal teas like peapigs - premiun brands that are bit special, or some fairtrade really good coffee/ cocoa.

Chutney and jam too are vegan but it depednds how strict she is about vegan sugar (some sugar uses aminal products in the refining process - though this may be an issue with any processed food containing sugar) - maybe homemade to be sure?

hunky_dory

Hiya,

I'm a vegan and get a lot of my goodies from goodness direct online. You can do a vegan search and it brings up all the vegan products. I can highly recommend booja booja chocolates although they are quite pricey.

Holland and Barrett are also great for cheaper vegan sweet things.. They have a range of chocolates and sweets.

I also find the free from ranges in the supermarkets great. Asda, tesco, morrisons and sainsburys all have a bit of an aisle dedicated to them and can often find vegan chocolates, biscuits and healthier options.

Coop do vegan christmas puddings too!

Hope this helps brilliant idea!

allybee101

How about homemade Limoncello? Tasty as a tipple or poured over fruit perhaps?
Very easy to make - about half an hour's time to make, a week to 'mature' and then bottled. Recipe can easily be halved, or you could use the rest for quality control purposes or another gift.

Limoncello

Serve straight from the freezer. Makes 2.3 litres (4 pints).

-8 unwaxed lemons
- 800 g (1 lb 12oz) granulated sugar
- 1 litre (1 3/4 pint) vodka
- 650 ml (1 1/4 pint) water

1. Remove zest from lemons. Avoid the white pith, this will make the limoncello bitter. Put zest in a large pan with sugar and water. Heat gently until sugar dissolves, then turn up heat and simmer for 15 min. Remove from heat.

2. Squeeze juice from lemons into a large bowl. Stir in sugar mixture and vodka. Cover and leave to infuse for one week.

3. Strain into a large jug through a sieve lined with kitchen paper then decant into sterilised bottles. Keeps for up to 6 months.

If it lasts that long.
I ended up straining it through the sieve unlined first before filtering with paper to get rid of the lemon zest. Otherwise it's v slow.

As it's not hugely strong it will freeze at a higher temperature than plain vodka - Limoncello slush puppie anyone? Oh and I used the flip top bottles from L8keland. It. looks vpretty with brown string and luggage type labels. Enjoy!

jeanmd

Thanks allybee.
I love the sound of Limoncello and will definitely give it a try. Do you know how long it lasts?

Edit, just reread and seen it lasts for 6 month's. lol

Loubell83

A vegan Xmas pudding at the Co-op??? Must get this for my partner to try!

moggymutt

What a lovely mum your are for respecting your daughter's views- mine never spoke to me for a week when I turned vegan.

Coop is the easy shop because it very clearly labels if suitable for vegans on biscuits, pies, puddings etc.

Booja Booja is the (expensive) 'to die for' vegan pressie.

Dont forget you can buy lots of vegan stuff on the internet,

Edwardia

I echo moggymutt's words about being a supportive mum. I was veggie for eleven years (until I met OH) and my mother fed me curried Heinz baked beans ad nauseum until she got into being veggie herself. My first veggie Christmas I got cheese and tomato pizza with sprouts eww :eek:

So well done you for being supportive I;m sure your daughter really appreciates that

jeanmd

Thank you, I'm an older mum with a ten year gap between my DD and youngest DS and I guess I learnt a lot by the time she was born. When she decided to be a goth at eleven I let her and it didn't last long because it wasn't something she could rebel against.
When she became a vegetarian at thirteen I thought the same would happen, but stuck to her diet to a T. I must admit that there was a lot of quorn meals, poor love. She now runs the veggie and vegan society at uni and looks so well on a vegan diet that she is convincing me she's correct.